Voitinskii_Stormy_passage

490 Stormy Passage

wide-open eyes, enjoying life, grasping avidly for new toys — chrome-
covered cars, electrical gadgets, TV sets. And thus the Joneses come
into the picture. Whatever new toy the Joneses have, their neighbors
want the same — but bigger and better.

It would be an exaggeration to say that the people of the United
States are free from préjudices. We met manifestations of anti-
Semitism, distrust of Roman Catholics, antipathy toward the Mex-
icans, the Italians, Pôles, and foreigners in gênerai. There is the bleed-
ing wound of discrimination against the Negroes. But hère the
manifestations of nationalisée, racial, or religious intolérance are
characteristic of definite groups of the population rather than of the
whole people. The Irish brought with them the grudge against the
British. Southerners have been poisoned by hatred of Negroes and
contempt for them — contempt because the Negroes* great-grandfathers
were slaves of the whites; hatred because some Negroes were masters
of the whites during the short period of Reconstruction after the Civil
War or have proved themselves more successful today. Thèse ugly
préjudices are in striking contrast to the gênerai spirit of tolérance that
characterizes American civilization.

In our lecture tours in Latin America and Asia, we have often been
asked about the treatment of the Negroes in the United States. We
have tried to dispel the false notions planted by anti-American
propaganda — for example, that Negroes are not admitted to high
schools or collèges and are corralled in their homes after dusk — but
we have neither denied nor minimized the seriousness of the Negro
problem. Explaining the roots of the déplorable situation, we have
stressed the complexity of the American agglomération of conflicting
cultural currents. The great majority of the people in this country,
we have said, have definite ideals of decency and justice in human
relations and do not feel that thèse ideals have been realized in our
institutions and everyday life. Democracy is a continuous struggle for
a better life and greater justice. The défense of rights of minorities is
one aspect of this struggle, and what has been achieved in this
field in the past two décades shows that the country is moving in
the right direction.

EQUALITY

The feature that impressed us most in the American character was the
feeling of social equality, a feature that native-born Americans fail to
notice because they take it for granted. The inferiority complex that
haunted the first Président of the German Republic would have been
impossible in America, where an important political person is in-

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Original from
UNIVERSITE OF MICHIGAN